Social adaptation of former Kolchakites in Soviet Russia on the example of officers of the 7th Kamyshlov (27th Kamyshlovo-Orovaisky) Mountain Rifle Regiment

The article analyses the life strategies of former Kolchakites in the Soviet political system on the example of officers of the 7th Kamyshlov (27th Kamyshlovo-Orovaisky) Mountain Rifle Regiment. Based on mostly unpublished sources from state and departmental archives, the paper reconstructs the biographical trajectories of officers who lived in the Urals in the 1920–1940s, and also identifies universal and regionally specific mechanisms and criteria for their (non-) success in adaptation.
The authors established that out of 189 regiment officers (on November 1, 1918), 53 persons were subjected to political repressions, accounting for 35 % of the total. Repressions occurred in three waves (1920s, early 1930s, 1937–1938s) with different motivations and legal grounds. Some former officers managed to integrate into Soviet society, continued military or civilian service and even received state awards.
The authors conclude that the state during the Civil War needed the competencies of its former enemies, but could not overcome suspicion of their past, which turned the Civil War experience into a permanent factor of social risk.

1. Petin D. I., Stelmak M. M., Sushko A. V. “Gold chasers” in Soviet Russia: A collective social portrait of former White officers in the 1920s (on the example of Omsk). Tomsk State University Journal. 2023;486:165–175. https://doi.org/10.17223/15617793/486/18. EDN: IWQMWV. (In Russ.).

2. Ujmanov V. N. Punitive operation against White ex-officers in Western Siberia in 1933. Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2012;6:243–251. EDN: PBNQJF. (In Russ.).

3. Vasilevskii V. P. The activity of the SPD-JSPD in Omsk regarding White army ex-soldiers. Omsk Scientific Bulletin. 2013;4(121):27–30. EDN: RELUGV. (In Russ.).

4. Kazakov D. N. Sud’by Vyatskikh ofitserov vo vremena “Krasnogo terror”. Idnakar: Metody Istoriko-Kul’turnoy Rekonstruktsii. 2017;1(34):101–119. EDN: XRUXAV. (In Russ.).

5. Petin D. I. Ex-officers in the social space of the West Siberian province in the 1920s: The example of Tara and its district. Historical Courier. 2024;6(38):50–65. https://doi.org/10.31518/2618-9100-2024-6-4. EDN: ODCGBM. (In Russ.).

6. Petin D. I. Former White officers in educational and enlightenment institutions of Krasnoyarsk in the first half of the 1920s: towards understanding the professional role and historical-anthropological portrait. Siberian Journal of Anthropology. 2024;8(4):6–16. EDN: PSRORA. (In Russ.).

7. Volkov E. V. Kolchakovskiye ofitsery: opyt istoricheskogo issledovaniya. Chelyabinsk, 2001. 336 p. EDN: XWYEVF. (In Russ.).

8. Simonov D. G. Belaya sibirskaya armiya v 1918 godu. Novosibirsk, 2010, 610 p. ISBN 978-5-94356-904-3. EDN: QPRBZF. (In Russ.).

9. Petin D. I. K voprosu o sotsial’noy adaptatsii byvshikh ofitserov i chinovnikov belykh armiy v Omske v 1920-e gg. Omskiye Sotsial’no-Gumanitarnyye Chteniya-2023. Omsk, 2023. P. 105–110. EDN: CRBLXO. (In Russ.)

10. Mamontova M. A. Kruglyy stol v Tsentre izucheniya istorii Grazhdanskoy voyny Istoricheskogo arkhiva Omskoy oblasti. Otechestvennyye Arkhivy. 2023;6:120–122. EDN: YOVFGF. (In Russ.).

11. Mashkevich S. V., Sushko A. V., Petin D. I. Conference on the Civil War in Eastern Russia: International scientific dialogue in Omsk. Herald of Omsk University. Series “Historical Studies”. 2024;11(1):175–180. https://doi.org/10.24147/2312-1300.2024.11(1).175-180. EDN: EDPMOW. (In Russ.).

12. Mamontova M. A., Fedotova I. V. Round table at the Center for the Study of the History of the Civil War Historical Archive of the Omsk Region. Sibirskiy Arkhiv. 2025;1(23):64–80. EDN: OHBASC. (In Russ.).

13. Russian State Military Archive. File: 39811/1/27. (In Russ.).

14. Kruchinin A. M. Rossiyskiy polk s finskim imenem. Ocherki istorii Orovayskogo polka (1811–1920). Ekaterinburg, 2000. 140 p. (In Russ.).

15. Otkrytyy spisok. Baza dannykh zhertv politicheskikh repressiy. URL: https://ru.openlist.wiki/ (assessed: 25.05.2025). (In Russ.).

16. Biobibliograficheskiy spravochnik “Rossiyskiye emigranty v Man’chzhurii”. URL: https://gakhkk.khabkrai.ru/projects/brem/ (assessed: 25.05.2025). (In Russ.).

17. State Archives of Khabarovsk Krai. File: Р-830/3/25431. (In Russ.).

18. Teplyakov A. G. On the question of reliability of the state repression statistics in 1918–1953. Ideas and Ideals. 2015;1 (4):59–67. https://doi.org/10.17212/2075-0862-2015-4.2-59-67. EDN: VIBJVT. (In Russ.).

19. Operativnyy prikaz NKVD SSSR № 00447 «Ob operatsii po repressirovaniyu byvshikh kulakov, ugolovnikov i drugikh antisovetskikh elementov». 30 iyulya 1937 goda. URL: https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/170642 (assessed: 25.05.2025). (In Russ.).

20. State Archives of Administrative Bodies of the Sverdlovsk Region (SAABSR). File: Р-1/2/75020. (In Russ.).

21. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/78490. (In Russ.).

22. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/72870. (In Russ.).

23. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/73001. (In Russ.).

24. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/78522. (In Russ.).

25. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 6. Ekaterinburg, 2006. 336 p. (In Russ.).

26. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 8. Ekaterinburg, 2010. 382 p. (In Russ.).

27. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/77731. (In Russ.).

28. SAABSR. File: 1/2/18293. (In Russ.).

29. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/59911. (In Russ.).

30. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/58539. (In Russ.).

31. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 2. Ekaterinburg, 2000. 294 p. (In Russ.).

32. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 3. Ekaterinburg, 2001. 302 p. (In Russ.).

33. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 4. Ekaterinburg, 2004. 414 p. (In Russ.).

34. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 5. Ekaterinburg, 2005. 478 p. (In Russ.).

35. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 9. Ekaterinburg, 2012. 406 p. (In Russ.).

36. Kniga pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressiy: Sverdlovskaya oblast’. Vol. 1. Ekaterinburg, 1999. 256 p. (In Russ.).

37. SAABSR. File: Р-1/2/2743. (In Russ.)

38. Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (CAMD RF). File: 7601/126297с/1. (In Russ.).

39. CAMD RF. File: 406/9850/52. (In Russ.).

40. CAMD RF. File: 33/690155/1119. (In Russ.).

41. CAMD RF. File: 33/687572/2739. (In Russ.).

42. CAMD RF. File: 33/44677/432. (In Russ.).

43. Shaburov V.A. Aleksandr Fedorovich Blokhin — Polnyy Kavaler 4-kh Georgiyevskikh Soldatskikh Krestov. URL: https:// https://sukharev-y.ru/%D1%88%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2-%D0%B2-%D0%B0-%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80-%D1%84%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80-%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87-%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%85%D0%B8/ (assessed: 25.05.2025). (In Russ.).